Last week I had a tough time. After attending my cousin Jensi’s marriage on Saturday in Madurai, we thought of traveling back to Chennai on Sunday night inthe “Pandian Super Fast Express”. I was holding an alternate option in the “Senkottai Super Fast Express” as well, because my son’s school was reopening on the next day. Last year too he tried to get full attendance and missed it by an unfortunate illness.

When the chart got prepared I realized that both the trains were full and our tickets were in the waiting lists itself. So I didn’t know what to do. One can handle any situation except his wife’s “N” number of questions🙂 . I discussed the depth of the situation with my wife’s brother Andrew and we both went to the “Periyar Bus Stand“. There he knew few of the travel agents as he was working in a travel agency in Madurai for a couple of years.

We thought those travel agents would have business links with other travel agents. We consulted a few guys there. One guy pointed towards a stationary Volvo bus and said “The bus will come around 10:oo PM sir and will look like this bus sir”. I avoided him and almost gave up the thought of traveling on that day.

A guy came nearby and told me that he’ll be able to arrange for two tickets in the Government A/C Bus. I was so happy, but dint know whether to believe him or not. One side of my mind kept on telling me that “Tomorrow is the first day of my son’s school“.

He asked me Rs. 600 for the ticket which actually costed only Rs. 400. But we had decided to home somehow or the other so, I gave him the money. He then asked us to follow him, and we silently obeyed. He went and met a guy who was sitting in the government booth. He spoke to him and that guy shouted in such a way that it almost sent this gut out!.

Then I started having my own doubts about this guy, so I asked my cousin to keep an eye on him. In the meanwhile I was looking for the remaining government buses as my alternate options. As he had told me the A/C bus arrived and it was full. We were very puzzled as to what to do. Then he promised me that he will get us all seats in an ordinary government bus.

An Ultra Deluxe Bus came and stopped in front of us. We asked the conductor if we could board it, but he said that the bus was full. Suddenly this broker went and spoke to him, and gave the money in a dark place underhand. God only knows how much money he gave. He returned to us with a reserved ticket and Rs 200 as well. So the tickets actually costed Rs. 1000 for two adults.

After I was handed the ticket we boarded the bus and gave a call to my wife who was in P&T nagar. She rushed to “Mattuthavani Bus Stand” with the help of neighborhood brother Mr. Rajendran in his car. They joined me in Mattuthavani Bus Stand. Luckily, we got seats at the back of the bus . Once the bus started moving the conductor came towards me and I took a half ticket worth Rs 120 for Alan. Hence, we reached Thambaram Bus Stand, Chennai on-time.

We took the underground subway from Thambaram Bus Stand to Thambaram Railway Station and traveled up to St. Thomas Mount Railway Station in an electric train and from there we reached home in my bike (Hero Honda Splendor).